About UBW

Photo by Rick McCullough

Urban Bush Women (UBW) burst onto the dance scene in 1984 through the art and vision of its award-winning Founder/Visioning Partner Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. The company weaves contemporary dance, music, and text with the history, culture, and spiritual traditions of the African Diaspora.

With the ground-breaking performance ensemble at its core, ongoing Urban Bush Women initiatives like the Summer Leadership Institute (SLI), BOLD (Builders, Organizers & Leaders through Dance) and the Choreographic Center Initiative, UBW continues to affect the overall ecology of the arts by promoting artistic legacies; projecting the voices of the under-heard and people of color; bringing attention to and addressing issues of equity in the dance field and throughout the United States; and by providing platforms and serving as a conduit for culturally and socially relevant experimental art makers.